_Lorenzo Lotto_ (Venetian: 1480-1555).
To this great painter full justice has scarcely been done by
writers on art--an omission which in recent years Morelli and
still more Mr. Berenson, in his elaborate monograph, have
sought to repair. Lotto led a wandering life, which took him
much away from Venice; hence his pictures are comparatively
little known. Again, as Sir F. Burton points out, "great
versatility and remarkable impressibility are among the chief
characteristics of Lotto, who certainly was possessed of genius
but whose development was oscillating and affected by many
influences. Only by extremely careful study and comparison can
his hand be traced throughout in works, which at first sight
exhibit little or nothing in common. Were none of Lotto's works
signed or otherwise attested they would certainly bear very
various attributions, as indeed many of his unsigned pictures
have done, and as it is likely some do still." The portrait,
for instance, of Andrea Odoni at Hampton Court was for several
centuries attributed to Correggio, but recent cleaning has
uncovered Lotto's signature and the date 1527. Of his power as
a portrait-painter visitors to the National Gallery can form a
good idea. His works in this sort will bear comparison with the
best of his contemporaries. They have, says Morelli, "all that
refined, inward elegance of feeling which marks the culminating
point in the last stage of progressive art in Italy, and
which is principally represented by Leonardo da Vinci, Lotto,
Andrea del Sarto, and Correggio; whereas the elegance of
Bronzino in Tuscany, and of Parmigiano in North Italy, is an
outward affected one, which has nothing to do with the inner
life of the person represented, and therefore characterises
the first stage of declining art." His sympathetic nature
enabled him to seize the finer traits of his sitters, and
they in turn "look out from his canvasses as if begging for
the sympathy" of the spectator. No. 1047 in our Gallery is
especially characteristic. Lotto's altar-pieces, which were
numerous, must be studied at Treviso, Recanati, Jesi, Bergamo,
and Trescorre (frescoes), near the latter place. His pictures
at different periods (they are for the most part dated) show
strong resemblances to different painters--to Bellini and the
Vivarini, to Palma, to Titian, to Giorgione, and to Correggio.
He was born at Venice, and, according to Vasari, was a disciple
of John Bellini. Mr. Berenson, on the contrary, maintains
on internal evidence that Lotto must have belonged to the
rival school of Alvise Vivarini. Of Palma, he was, according
to Vasari, the friend and companion. With Titian he was on
friendly terms, though if we may judge from a letter by Pietro
Aretino, the attitude of the worldly Titian coterie to the
gentle Lotto, was not unmixed with some contempt. "O Lotto," he
writes, "as goodness good, and as talent talented, Titian from
Augsburg, in the midst of the high favour everybody is eager to
show him, greets and embraces you by the token of the letter
which I received from him two days ago. He says that it would
double the pleasure that he takes in the emperor's satisfaction
with the picture he is now painting, if he had your eye and
your judgment to approve him. And indeed, the painter is
not mistaken, for your judgment has been formed by age, by
nature, and by art, with the prompting of that straightforward
kindliness which pronounces upon the works of others exactly
as if they were your own. Envy is not in your breast. Rather
do you delight to see in other artists certain qualities which
you do not find in your own brush, although it performs those
miracles which do not come easy to many who yet feel very happy
over their technical skill. But holding the second place in
the art of painting is nothing compared to holding the first
place in the duties of religion, for Heaven will recompense you
with a glory that passes the praise of this world.--Venice,
April 1548." The resemblance between Lotto and Correggio was
founded on no personal intercourse or artistic "influence," but
on similarity of temperament. It is most conspicuous in the
works of Lotto's "Bergamask period" (1518-1526). But whereas
Correggio's sensitiveness is to impressions of outward joy
and beauty, Lotto's is attuned rather to states of the human
soul. Titian's sitters, it has been well said, are as if on
parade, and his religious pictures tell of the pomp or rapture
of public services. Lotto's sitters commune rather with their
own souls, and in his devotional pieces he aims at a personal
interpretation of religious motives. "As a colourist," says
Burton, "Lotto remained throughout a Venetian. His flesh tints
are true, and various as the age, sex, and temperament of the
persons depicted." All that we know of his life suggests a
reserved, sensitive, and unworldly nature. Unlike so many of
his contemporaries, he never sued the favour of the mighty.
In his account book recently discovered at Loreto he speaks
again and again of having done excellent work for people who
remunerated him with pence where if a contract had been made
they would have had to pay him in pounds. He lodged sometimes
with friends, sometimes with monks. His life was that of a
lonely wanderer, very industrious, but laying up no store. In
1554 he made over himself and all his belongings to the Holy
House at Loreto, "being tired of wandering and wishing to end
his days in that holy place." During the last years of his life
he had almost entirely lost his voice. In one of his wills is
a reference which shows us the temperament of the man. Among
his scanty possessions were a number of antique gems. These
he speaks of lovingly, because they were engraved with mystic
symbols for the spirit to brood upon (see _Lorenzo Lotto: an
Essay in Constructive Criticism_, by Bernhard Berenson, 1895;
and Morelli's _German Galleries_, pp. 31-40; _Roman Galleries_,
p. 301).
Agostino was Professor of Medicine in the University of Padua; he
holds a copy of "Galen," the most celebrated of the ancient medical
writers, in his hand. It was for Niccolo, however, according to the
inscription, that the picture was painted in 1515; and Signor Morelli
(its former owner) thinks that Agostino's portrait must have been
inserted at a later time, for "it is placed very awkwardly in the
background" (_German Galleries_, p. 37 _n._). "No one with a feeling
for composition can doubt for an instant that Agostino was originally
intended to be alone on the canvas, as he occupies all of it that a
single bust ought to occupy. Morelli's inference seems thus to be well
founded that Lotto, on his return from Venice to Bergamo, stopped at
Padua and painted the portrait of Agostino, which he brought to Niccolo
at Bergamo, who thereupon had his own portrait added.... Lotto's
sitters were in no way remarkable. Nevertheless, he gives them a look
of refinement and innate sweetness of nature which brings us very close
to them" (Berenson, pp. 138, 321).